


Definitive Outline

by revolutionator



Category: Gatchaman Crowds
Genre: Other, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-01-30
Packaged: 2018-01-10 13:31:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revolutionator/pseuds/revolutionator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As part of their integration into the G-team, Rui teaches Sugane how to do something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Definitive Outline

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stellarbird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarbird/gifts).



> in all honesty i'm a little nervous about posting this but it's a present for my good friend who i love very much. i hope you enjoy it :)

'No, you need to keep your eyes open.'

Suganes hands are twisted up in his sweater. He mumbles something very quietly about how that seems counter-intuitive, but he does keep his eyes open. They start watering immediately. The watering worsens the closer Rui gets.

Rui's hands hover over his cheeks, awkward satellites. 'Are you sure you want me to...'

'Yeah,' Sugane says too quickly, and then lets out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. 'Yeah, I do, it's just. It's...it's _unorthodox_.'

That comes out sounding ridiculous even for him. Rui doesn't laugh. Instead they brush one hesitant thumb over his cheekbone and whisper, 'It destresses me. If it makes you stressed, I wouldn't really recommend it.'

Sugane shrugs. His eyes flicker over to Rui's laboratory of bottles and little bags and small plastic cases, all well-used but strangely immaculate. Their fingers are working through the collection even now, deftly carding through foundation, lipgloss, blush. They keep lifting his chin up and looking at his face, as serious now as when they sit doing GALAX maintenance.

'You're a little paler than me,' Rui says. They smile when Sugane raises his eyebrows. 'On the base level. Obviously you get more sunlight.'

'Is that...bad?'

'No, but I don't have the foundation I'd like to use. I'll improvise.'

And improvise they do, their gentle fingers stroking his skin flat and smearing the first cold swatch of colour over his cheekbones. Sugane's breath catches in his throat, watching them work in glimpses afforded from the mirrors hanging over the dresser. Rui uses their ring finger to blur the stark streak of olive, until it smoothes out into a natural gradient, and then applies more on the second side. Repeats.

Sugane closes his eyes. Their fingertips are kind of soothing, actually.

'Did you ever use makeup?'

Sugane opens his eyes again. Rui takes their hands away from his face for a moment, their eyes shining behind their glasses. They're dressing conservatively today – a dark sweater over jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, at total odds with the wig. Blonde pigtails fringed with pink. They're hiding behind the bangs of it right now, aware that they've made a misstep.

'Boys don't,' Sugane says awkwardly. 'So no.'

'They could,' Rui says. 'They _should_ , honestly, if they want to. There's nothing wrong with updating yourself now and again.'

There's a little silence between them that feels like it lasts for centuries, long aching minutes until Sugane reaches out and touches Rui's side. He catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror – he looks cleaner, healthier, and it actually isn't bothering him as much as he was expecting it to.

'Are you going to use anything else?'

'Only if you want me to.'

Sugane looks carefully at Rui's own face, the way they've blurred the contours of their bone structure into something else, emphasised the large eyes and moistened the lips, but it's only noticeable from close up like this. It's a very simple look. Clean, uncomplicated.

Then he realises he is staring at Rui's face without saying anything, from a distance close enough to feel the puff of their breath, and he glows bright red. Red enough to ruin all their careful work, he's certain. He tries to shrug away and nearly falls off the stool.

'I like how you do yours,' he manages to say, forcing the words through a knot of too-dense air, it all comes out in a rattle – Rui doesn't say anything. They stroke more products into his forehead, the bridge of his nose, the awkward spot on his chin. He has to hold his eyes open until they water, while Rui delicately flickers the little brush in their hand around the edges of his eyelids.

'You have really good skin,' Rui says, and Sugane hears the wistful little ache in their voice, and also the way they clip their words short. It's something he notices his own voice doing around Rui. It only makes sense; this uncertainty with what compliments work, the fear of hurting, the tiny hint of admiration of the other's body, secret admiration that that each of them feels guilty about having.

'Thank you.'

Rui puts the little pen-brush away. More things come out; a soft-bristled wand that they use on his eyelashes, a pot of powder and a soft pad of cotton to apply it with ('to seal it', Rui says, in a voice that is soft and mysterious and unintentionally ominous). Rui takes breaks now and then to tap at X's tablet and ask xyr to pull up recommended brands and tutorials.

When they draw away after they finish, Sugane's face feels strange and foreign. He feels scared to lick his own lips. He glances reflexively to the mirror, and hears his own breath hiccup out in surprise – Rui hasn't used makeup in quite the same way that they do for themselves. Instead the contours are just a little harsher, his lips have been muted, they've performed some weird optical illusion that makes his chin look less weak.

They have outlined his eyes very faithfully. Even bigger like this, brighter. He swivels them towards Rui now. They're a hunched figure, stood picking at the loose threads in their sweater in brisk, compulsive little movements, even as their face stays carefully neutral.

'Do you like it?'

'It's...' he looks for a word to describe it and gets stuck. 'I look like me.'

'Well, naturally.'

'But I mean. More like me. Like how...'

'Like how you want to look? Yes. That's... That's how it works. Or how it's supposed to work, anyway.'

Sugane smiles ruefully. He looks at himself in the mirror again, feeling incompatible with the reflection and at home all at once; he isn't aware he's clutching onto Rui's sweater until they take his hand in theirs.

He holds their hand too. Looking at them feels weirder now that they're close without any purpose. Rui lifts their other hand to fix their glasses and then freezes with it halfway to their face; they are blinking a lot. Sugane can hear his own breathing and theirs and when they sync up it's too loud, the blood is pounding too hard in his head, his fingers feel too small and too weak to hold on. Rui holds his hand tighter. He's grateful.

'Rui,' Sugane mumbles, wishing his voice was lower. The words don't feel loud enough to be heard over the marathon beating of his heart or Rui's gentle breath. 'Would it be weird if I asked, whether it would be okay to-'

'Do you want to kiss me?' Rui asks in a very curious voice.

'Uh...'

'I'm sure it'd be nice,' Rui says. They curl one long lock of artificial hair around their finger, 'if it was you, I mean. I haven't really kissed anyone other than...than that thing.'

'Okay,' Sugane says, this time wishing that his voice was lower _and_ he had the slightest clue how to proceed from here. His hands rest clumsy on the shoulders of their sweater, he tugs them ever so gently down – it feels weird being the one who instigates this kind of thing – and nudges their lips apart with his own. He loses his nerve after about two seconds and pulls away, bright pink and wide-eyed.

Rui is smiling at him as though he's just showed them a magic trick.

'That _was_ nice,' they say, and give a thoughtful little nod. They stoop down just slightly and kiss him on the forehead. Sugane isn't quite sure what is happening. He's left staring at them after they pat his head and gather up their things, humming as they go. 'This was very fun, Sugane-kun.'

'Yeah,' he says in a high squeak, then scrambles up off the stool to catch up with them. 'Would you like, uh, to...do something else? With me? There's an Iaido tournament Friday, and, Hajime's coming, and if you wanted- but afterwards, we could just-'

'Yes please,' Rui says. 'I've never been on a date before.'

X announces that it has recorded the tournament and the ensuing date in Rui's schedule. Sugane is much too flustered by everything to take issue, although of course he intends to, because they've gotten him completely wrong. Rui's smile is wide and their eyes are shining, and Sugane feels like he does around Hajime; completely out of his depth, awestruck, attracted.

Wait, no, that last one is new.

New and alarming.

New enough, though, that Sugane can downplay it in his mind until later. Until after his tournament.

'I like hanging out with you, Sugane-kun,' Rui says. They speak slowly and don't meet Sugane's eyes. 'I have GALAX maintenance to do now, but... Friday! I'll look forward to it.'

They take his hand again as they both walk to the door and it feels less scary this time. Like it's something warm and natural and comfortable. They don't kiss again as they leave, but there's a moment when it feels like they might, where Sugane looks at Rui's perfectly defined features and loud artificial hair and the unwavering too-bright green of their eyes; where he's aware that Rui is looking over his own face, the worried eyebrows and long eyelashes, the new drawn-in structure.

'Try recreating it on your own,' Rui says as they close the door. 'It looks good. I'll send you a tutorial through GALAX.'

'I will.'

'You can wear it for our date,' Rui says, and the door is closed before Sugane can come back with anything.


End file.
